Vortrag, 7th Annual Meeting of the Specialist Group on Macroecology of the Gesellschaft für Ökologie, Göttingen: 13.03.2013 - 15.03.2013
Abstract:
There is evidence for an elevation-driven ecological isolation that is suggested to promote distinctly higher diversification in high-elevated ecosystems on islands (Steinbauer et al. 2012, 2013). The geographic distance to source ecosystems is larger for high elevation ecosystems in comparison to low elevation counterparts. Consequently these high elevation ecosystems on island or island like mountains support a higher degree of endemic species. However, the difference in isolation between low and high elevation ecosystems diminishes with increasing isolation. As a number of other drivers would support higher diversification in low elevations (area, temperature etc.) it is likely that the positive relation between the percentage of endemic species and elevation that is identified on less isolated islands may vanish or even become negative. Depending on the primary way of species colonization, different modes of isolation are suggested to lead to distinctly different patterns.